As pickleball emerges and grows and becomes more commonly seen on TV, the sport has an interesting question it needs to ask itself moving forward.
Is it going to be like tennis and golf, or is it going to be like everything else?
Because, honestly either way could work.
But both won’t.
There’s nothing wrong with the whisper-quiet sounds of tennis and the library feel of golf. That’s how those sports have established themselves and that’s how they’re known, seen, and consumed.
Your frat party isn’t welcome here. Take your chaos somewhere else.
However, pickleball could embrace it.
“I think there could be a happy middle,” said PPA pro Tyler Loong. “Tennis and golf are extreme examples. I would like almost a hybrid model of the sports tennis and basketball. I don’t think fans need to be 100 percent silent during a point, but if a fan had a horn and blew it right before a player was about to hit a shot, I don’t think that would go over well. That type of behavior would need to be monitored.”
The way pickleball is set up now is sort of a hybrid, like Loong is talking about. During tournaments players are often hitting shots and competing as fans and others are talking and walking around. It’s not uncommon to see fans get up and walk around in the middle of a rally. In addition, noise is somewhat consistent as games are often played adjacent to other games, so there’s always a level of commotion.
But it’s not soccer or basketball or football where fans participate in ways that can sometimes affect an outcome. Certainly fans aren’t on the field of play, but a rowdy basketball arena makes a difference. A boisterous crowd can feed energy to the competitors.
And players have different feelings about what the PPA experience should be once the ball is in play.
“I think the noise makes it more entertaining,” said DJ Young. “No one wants to just hear the sound of a dink only. If there’s noise at all times, it’s not a big deal.”
That’s the thing, noise at all times can be a situation players get used to. Loud is loud. It can become “white noise” – just a background to the action. The issue is when there are moments of silence followed by intermittent bursts of noise. That can be a problem. That’s what Loong was talking about and that’s what golfers often get frustrated with, even to the point of a single camera click making the biggest difference.
Right now, pickleball is somewhere in between the two. There are no rigid guidelines to what fans are allowed to do and what’s forbidden.
“I think the pickleball crowd should get rowdy and as wild as they want between the points,” said long-time pro, Lucy Kovalova. “But they should be quiet, like in tennis, when the point starts.”
Kovalova comes from the sport of tennis, which is predominantly polite and quiet during play. However, many pickle-fans do not come from golf or tennis backgrounds and have no underlying expectations for behavior during professional play.
For a sport that is in its infancy and is trying to gain some eyes on matches – both streaming and on TV, maybe a little rowdiness would be attractive – regardless of when and where the ball is during a rally. Major League Pickleball has embraced this, to some extent, creating more of a party scene vibe, which players have voiced mixed opinions on.
At the recent PPA Tour Selkirk Texas Open, an entire party bus full of rowdy and somewhat intoxicated SMU college students rolled up and turned Center Court into a battleground, hollering, applauding, and heckling the action throughout the day. Some players disapproved, while others said the energy and enthusiasm made them compete harder. It all comes down to a basic question: should rules around fan behavior be instituted or should players just deal with it?
“I don’t mind either scenario,” Loong said of a tennis-esque crowd vs. a loud crowd. “I’ve played in both situations. I think there needs to be some clear guidelines on what is appropriate vs what is not appropriate. Currently, players don’t think spectators can yell during points, so when this does occur, then it rightfully throws off a player’s shot and game. If players understood this could happen, then I think this wouldn’t be much of an issue.”
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